Dark Tourism and ‘Partial Religiosity’: Ontological-Aesthetic Pilgrimage in Camiguin Island, Philippines

This paper theorizes the contrast between dark tourism and what is referred to as ‘partial religiosity’ in the context of travel to selected tourist destinations on Camiguin Island, Philippines. Also called ‘thanatourism’, dark tourism is about visiting places that challenge the value derived from the association with death either from tragedies of naturally occurring catastrophes (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or typhoons) or disasters produced by humans (such as genocides and violations of human rights). Focus is on three spots that sufficiently fit the description of dark tourist sites in Camiguin in the sense of naturally-caused disasters, namely: the Sunken Cemetery, the Old Bonbon Church Ruins of Catarman or the Gui-ob Ruins, and Walkway to the Old Volcano and Stations of the Cross (WOVSC). With the three sites,the author examines the ontological-aesthetic dimension of pilgrimage using the theological implications of Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO). Harman claims that if there is a religious object directed by religious actions, e.g. God, given the ontological-aesthetic tensions of the objects and qualities, that object will only have to be partial. The author argues that if there is a religious dimension to traveling in Camiguin – even the partial passing in one’s itinerary to the sites of dark tourism among other sites (e.g. falls and white beaches) – the tourist journey cannot be claimed as a religious pilgrimage but, within the interstices of ontological-aesthetic contestations, at best a ‘partial religiosity.’